I have not looked at a newspaper in twenty years; if one is brought into the room, I flee. This is not because I am indifferent but because one cannot follow every road.

Love is mainly an affair of short spasms. If these spasms disappoint us, love dies. It is very seldom that it weathers the experience and becomes friendship.

Compromise yourself. Obscure your own trail.

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

Art is science made flesh.

Alas! I do not believe that inspiration falls from heaven. think it rather the result of a profound indolence.

Since it's now fashionable to laugh at the conservative French Academy, I have remained a rebel by joining it.